Maple Lions

Man United’s 4-0 thumping of Charlton keeps them in second place and an automatic spot in the Champions League. Arsenal will finish the season in fourth, dropping Spurs to fifth and the UEFA Cup. And the Mags best Chelsea 1-0 to finish seventh, which gives them an Intertoto Cup spot - not much, perhaps, but more than we could have hoped for when the Souness era mercifully came to an end.

Damian P.

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Arsenal - playing an Englishman! - is through to the Champions League final.

I don’t see how the Spurs-Gunners battle can affect the Geordies’ run for a UEFA Cup place, so I’m kind of torn.  One one hand, an EPL club winning the European championship again would be great for English football.  On the other hand, it’s friggin’ Arsenal.

Damian P.

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With the Légion Étrangère’s victory over Villareal yesterday making a CL finals appearance a growing possibility, Tottenham is gearing up to fight for its potential CL qualifying spot:

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the Premier League are backing Tottenham’s case and last month wrote to Uefa on their behalf asking if they would consider changing their rules again.

That request was knocked back but Tottenham are not likely to let the matter rest.

Chairman Daniel Levy and club secretary John Alexander are exploring ways of challenging Uefa’s rules. It is understood that they are even considering legal action as they believe the rules could be viewed as discriminatory under European legislation.

The UEFA rules were pretzeled last year to give the Scousers another run at European glory. It speaks volumes of how Arsenal is viewed that the EPL is willing to stand logic on its head and fight for Spurs in the face of that precedent.

Paul Canniff

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If Arsene Wenger was not taking careful note of yesterday’s CL semi between Barça and AC Milan, then French arrogance has reached new heights:

1. Striker versus Striker

It took one of Europe’s best “goon squads” — Gattuso and Stam — to shut down Ronaldinho and that lasted for only 57 minutes. Who in the Gooners’ defence is going to mark Ronaldhino that tightly? The real duel will be Ronaldinho and Jens Lehmann: Lehmann is at least running in excellent form. Relying on a free-flowing Henry may not be enough to prevail.

2. The Ukrainian Phantom

Jeers for Andriy Shevchenko’s stunt double on the pitch: performed nothing like the real man, wherever he was.

3. Serie A Razzies 06

Yes, it may have won a yellow card for Puyol but Kaka’s dive was a hammy performance of dinner-theatre calibre. He need not count on an encore at the Nou Camp.

The Beautiful Game always has an element of chance but it strikes me as a tall order for AC to pull off a two-goal lead in Barcelona. If the Milanese don’t show up in Paris, Wenger faces the fight of his life.

Paul Canniff

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A number of the promotion and relegation decisions are in, courtesy of BBC and the Telegraph.

Some events ahead to watch for:

• If Arsenal wins the Champions League and still finishes behind Tottenham in fifth, Spurs get punted into the UEFA Cup instead of the Champions League.  Rather like being named UEFA’s Miss Congeniality, except parts of North London won’t be that pretty afterwards.
• Grimsby Town look to move up from League Two to League One.  The result? A near-apocalyptic derby with Scunthorpe United that will make Lincolnshire look like Fallujah.

Paul Canniff

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Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has been meeting secretly with FIFA president Sepp Blatter to broker a peace with the G14:

The private talks are aimed at finding a breakthrough in the long-running battle between Europe’s most powerful clubs and Fifa, the world game’s governing body, over the international calendar and compensation for use of top players when they are on international duty.

That may help put out the fire on the FIFA front, but what will G14 do if Villareal wins the Champions League this year, and not one of the members of the He-Man UEFA-Haters Club®?

UPDATE

UEFA isn’t swayed.  Said chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson,

“They are creating a smokescreen to hide their ambitions for an alternative competition.”

Paul Canniff

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UEFA has reaffirmed it will not negotiate with the G14. Said chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson:

“We don’t have to talk to the G14 but we will talk to the clubs. When we talk to the individual clubs their views are not as militant as when they come from the G14 office.”

[…]

“G14 creates the conditions for a war rather than trying to find agreements.”

“Most of the clubs are saying ‘we don’t want to break away’ but then they change their statutes to say that now we should be able to organise a competition.

“Now they have to show their real cards.”

In related news, G14 has called an emergency meeting for next week over the Charleroi suit, presumably to climb down from their position to extract compensation from FIFA.

Paul Canniff 

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G14 press flack James Thellusson whines over “… a campaign to attack the G14.”

All because a UEFA official observed,

“There’s no need for such a group. It is a negative force in football.”

Pretty much.

Paul Canniff

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Today BBC Sportsweek interviewed Man U chief exec David Gill. Other guests were Rick Parry of Liverpool and Keith Wyness of Everton.

Listen for yourself, of course, but let me venture two observations from the interviews:

1. G14 needs UEFA much more than they care to admit: UEFA adds vital legitimacy to what Gill concedes would otherwise be just a footie cash cow.
2. It is vastly easier to become a Freemason than a member of G14, Keith Wyness’ aside notwithstanding. As a Freemason with Grand Chapter rank, I can vouch for the former. At least there are consistent rules and processes for entering the Craft.

Paul Canniff

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UEFA lays some smackdown on the footie plutocrats. And Sepp Blatter actually talks sense for once.

Sweet.

Paul Canniff

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